Launch Day Anniversary on the Space Coast

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  • July 16, 2019 at 1:57 pm #27101
    _Robert_
    Participant

    Proud day here on the Space Coast, 50 years ago ‘we’ hurled that huge craft out of this world. We are pretty used to launches around here and almost all my friends and family earn their living in some way related to the space programs. That launch was very, very special. My relatives worked at the firm that manufactured the lights used to illuminate the moonscape and I worked at another company produced the radios that transmitted the “one giant leap” message. Hundreds of thousands of people directly contributed to that program. People like Katherine Johnson (Hidden Figures) to the girdle seamstresses who used their old school sewing machines to make the life-critical spacesuits. What a great indirect return on investment we reaped from this historic effort. People across the planet all felt like they were part of the team as borders melted away. I read that even the Soviet cosmonauts were rooting for three human beings.

    July 17, 2019 at 12:04 am #27110
    Davis
    Participant

    It is astonishing how quickly western civilization advanced once the chains of religion were thrown off. It was like BOOM electricity, BOOM airplanes, BOOM deep understanding of physics, BOOM dna, BOOM landing on the moon. Along with enormous progress in human rights, a kinder society and stable politics. Wow. Yes, the moon landing really is a special moment and even though it was America who did it, and planted an American flag, it was and still is a global event. The culmination of a couple centuries of secularization in the Western world, breaking every rule and showing no limits. The soviets got into space first (which is actually quite ignored in history books) but the insane craziness, determination and balls the American astronauts had got us on the moon! The first footprint left there (it’s still there) is a powerful symbol of human potential when we decide our own rules and are own destiny.

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Davis.
    July 17, 2019 at 5:05 am #27118
    _Robert_
    Participant

    I just found out that the BBC was playing “space oddity” as the lunar module was landing. Here is the Flaming Lips odder version

    space oddity

     

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